Skates

ABSTRACT

A skating boot has separate ankle and toe straps, each attached to a roller or blade carrying chassis, both straps being formed as one-piece mouldings of flexible synthetic resin material. The straps are locally reinforced by thickening of the material at selected location, such as in the region of lace holes and attachment holes, and locally reduced in thickness where increased flexibility is desired such as at the edges of ankle cut-outs and tongues.

United States Patent 9] Nicholls 1 Aug. 13, was

1 SKATES [75] Inventor: Bryan Frederick Nicholls,

Northampton, England The Meltoy Company Limited, Northampton, England 22 Filed: Nov. 20, 1972 21 App1.No.:307,875

[73] Assignee:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 26, 1972 Great. Britain 49390/72 [52] US. Cl. 280/1L3 [51] Int. Cl. A63C 1/18 [58] Field of Search 280/11.3, 11.19.11.22,

280/11.23, 11.24, 11.27, 11.26, 11.25, 11.21, 11.2, 1l.28.11.l, 11.36; 36/2.5 AB,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,694,374 12/1928 Colwell 280/1 1.22

1,798,590 3/1931 Collis 280/1 1.3 3,396,985 8/1968 Kipnis 280/11.3 X 3,638,333 2/1972 Sprandel 36/25 AB Primary Examiner-David Schonberg Assistant Examiner-Milton L. Smith Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Brisebois & Kruger ABSTRACT A skating boot has separate ankle and toe straps, each attached to a roller or blade carrying chassis, both straps being formed as one-piece mouldings of flexible synthetic resin material. The straps are locally reinforced by thickening of the material at selected location, such as in the region of lace holes and attachment holes, and locally reduced in thickness where in creased flexibility is desired such as at the edges of ankle cut-outs and tongues.

2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures SKATES This invention relates to skates, and although it is primarily concerned with roller skates it may also be applicable to ice skates.

The invention is particularly concerned with the construction of a skating boot, of the type comprising separate ankle and toe straps secured to a chasis or sole plate which carries the roller assembly of a roller skate or the blade of an ice skate.

In known skates, the separate ankle and toe straps are made of leather, which although suitable in many respects, does present certain disadvantages, especially in relation to the production of low cost, bulkproduced assemblies. A prime disadvantage is that metal eyelets or hooks must be provided as separate items for reinforcing lace holes or to provide lacehooks, respectively and any other holes to be reinforced, such as rivet holes, must be provided with eyelets. Manufacture from leather also rules out the possibility of reinforcing parts of the strap by thickening the material in the required regions.

The invention aims at removing these disadvantages and resides broadly in the provision of one piece ankle and toe straps for direct attachment to the sole plate of a skate, each strap being formed as a one-piece moulding of flexible synthetic resin material.

By forming a strap of such material, it is possible to obviate completely the need to provide separate at tachments such as reinforcing eyelets or hooks, since the thickness of the material can be increased locally in any region in which extra strength is required.

A presently preferred form of the invention is described below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a view of an ankle strap, as moulded,

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are strap sections on the lines II-II,

III-Ill and IVIV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view of a toe strap, as moulded; and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a roller skate incorporating the ankle and toe straps of FIGS. 1 and 5.

The ankle strap 1 shown in FIGS. 1 4 is formed as a one-piece moulding of flexible synthetic plastics material such as polyurethane rubber or plasticised/p.v.c.

The moulding is formed with two rows of lace holes 2, each hole being formed through a thickened reinforcing boss -3, and two rows of attachment holes 4 formed through a thickened marginal strip 5 of the strap. A recess 6 is destined to form a heel cut-out in the finished skate, and two elongated holes 7 form ankle holes. As shown in FIG. 4, the edges of the ankle holes 7 are chamfered to render the margins of the holes more flexible, and thus reduce the tendency for the edges to cut into the ankle of the user.

Two tongues 8 of reduced thickness are provided at the upper edge of the strap, in a position to underlie the laces when tied around the top of the ankle strap in use.

Finally, the strap has a number of integral studs 9 near the upper edge of the strap to prevent the laces, when tied round the top of the strap, from riding up over the strap and chafflng the instep of the user.

The toe strap is formed with two attachment holes 10 through thickened bosses 11, and with two pairs of lace holes 12 each through a thickened edge portion 13.

In the completed skate, the ankle strap is formed round to bring the two straps 5 underneath the sole plate 14 of the skate, and is secured by rivets or other fasteners through the holes 4 and corresponding holes in the sole plate. The rear control portion of the strap is preferably canted forwardly to provide a set of the heel similar to that of a ski-boot, to make the skate more comfortable for the user. The toe strap is attached to the sole plate by two rivets, through the attachment holes 10, and the straps are laced in conventional manner, using the lace holes 2 and 12.

It will be appreciated that the toe and ankle straps described and illustrated are readily formed as one piece mouldings, and can, without any further preparation, be attached to the sole plate. Unlike leather straps they need no additional attachments such as eyelets or hooks, and are rendered more or less rigid in selected areas, as desired, by varying the thickness of the material.

The skate shown in FIG. 5 is a roller skate which in use simulates an ice skate. It has three rollers 14 of which the centre roller is set slightly below the other two, in order to increase maneouvrability.

The skate could however, take many other forms, either of roller skate or of ice skate.

I claim:

1. A skating boot comprising a roller carrying chassis and separate ankle and toe strap secured thereto, each of said straps being formed as a one-piece moulding of synthetic plastics material and each having attachment holes formed through locally thickened portions thereof and lace holes formed through locally thickened portions thereof, said ankle strap further having integral lace-retaining protruberances positioned adjacent an upper edge thereof and integral tongues of reduced thickness, said ankle strap being without any auxiliary attachments such as eyelets, hooks and loops.

2. A skating boot comprising a separate chassis and separate ankle and toe straps secured thereto, each of said straps being formed as a one-piece moulding of flexible synthetic resin material, and said ankle strap being formed with a plurality of protuberances near one edge thereof, which edge is an upper edge in use, said protuberances being adapted to prevent laces tied around the ankle of the user from riding up above said edge.

. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE QERTWICTE F CORRECTION Patent No. 3,829,,111 Dated August 13, 197a Inventor(s) ERYAN FREDERICK NICHOLLS It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

[73] Assignee: The Mettoy Company Limited,

Northampton, England Signed and sealed this 5th day of November 1974.

(SEALY Attest:

McCOY M. GIBSON JR. C. MARSHALL DANN Coriimi'sioner of Patents Attesting Offioer USCOMM-DC 60376-P69 ORM PC4050 (10-69) u.s, GOVERNMENT PRINTING omcs: HI" o-ase-su. 

2. A skating boot comprising a separate chassis and separate ankle and toe straps secured thereto, each of said straps being formed as a one-piece moulding of flexible synthetic resin material, and said ankle strap being formed with a plurality of protuberances near one edge thereof, which edge is an upper edge in use, said protuberances being adapted to prevent laces tied around the ankle of the user from riding up above said edge. 